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Post by Sheena on Dec 24, 2014 7:55:27 GMT
EDIT TO COMPILE THE THREAD'S IDEAS: - Roll20 is a very good, fairly simple tool to use when hosting games online. It's even more powerful when used in conjunction with Skype or a Google+ Hangout. Comes with support for character sheets and legit random dice rolls based on the lack of pattern when a beam of light is split. They advertize that it's fairer even than real dice. - For pure character sheet hosting, www.myth-weavers.com/ has sheets for many different rulesets and even has some support for auto-complete functions on more popular games. - For those who are looking to spend some time on setting up their campaign, a more advanced tool would be MapTool, which does more than just what the name suggests. A full description is on the linked page. ----------- Has anyone found a good way to emulate the feel of an in-person tabletop session online? I've run some skype games, some IRC games, and combinations of the two, but those were all hard to keep on track and hard to communicate through. There has to be some good online sources that I'm missing out on. Any ideas? If we find some good ones I'll sticky them on their respective boards. |
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Pascal
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Post by Pascal on Dec 24, 2014 10:41:31 GMT
There's roll20, a free 2d table simulator. You can create maps with tiles, and move objects around in a grid. I think you still have to handle all the actual rules yourself, but it makes a good visual aid. I'm afraid I only farted around in the editor a bit, and haven't actually played a game with it, but it looks pretty good. EDIT: roll20 has digital character sheets for a lot of popular titles, and can simulate some of the rules, plus you can create your own macros if need be. Also, there's a game on Steam called Tabletop Simulator for $15 (on sale for $10 right now). It's a 3d physics simulator where you can move pieces around a digital table, so it doesn't do the rules for you either, and might be more trouble to run if your computer is a potato. I'd go with the first one. |
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sethani
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Post by sethani on Dec 24, 2014 12:26:25 GMT
Definitely MapTool. It's a bit hard to master, but with some coding experience you're able to write macro's that help your games. You can even import some systems were people did the work for you. As for communications, I prefer Ventrilo, since running a server of that is REALLY easy and you can make private rooms if you want to talk to players alone.
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Post by Dr Archeville on Dec 24, 2014 14:28:48 GMT
At Freedom City Play by Post we have a chat program/room attached to the board, which allows for the "random table chatter" aspect of tabletop gaming, and for answering questions in real-time. Maps are trickier, I've yet to find a good/easy to us one (though I've yet to try either of the ones mentioned above). |
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yd12k
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Post by yd12k on Dec 25, 2014 13:43:26 GMT
I've used roll 20 and maptool in the past. Roll20 worked really well, maptool... I couldn't get it to work at all.
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sethani
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Post by sethani on Dec 25, 2014 17:30:10 GMT
I do admit that maptool takes a LOT of love and care. It's a wonderful program if you can get it to work though. Also, depending on when you tried it, versions may have updated. If anyone wants help to get Maptool working for them, I'm happy to help. Just send me a message if you want to learn it :-)
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Post by donjentleman on Dec 25, 2014 18:06:42 GMT
I couldn't understand Maptool at all, but Roll20 has been a whole nother story. I would recommend Roll 20 for online sessions.
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annajiejie
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Post by annajiejie on Dec 27, 2014 1:00:09 GMT
I'll add another prop for Roll20, with the caveat that their audio chat functions leave a LOT to be desired. My group usually uses Skype for chat, though some of us have also used Google Hangouts. Hangouts actually has Roll20 as a plugin, so you can run your game and the chat in the same window.
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Moonjuice7
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Post by Moonjuice7 on Dec 27, 2014 2:37:12 GMT
I've done Roll20 (two thumbs up) with its audio, as well as using skype in place of Roll20 Audio. I have also done skype with a google doc that was shared to participants. The final option I've tried is realtimeboard.com, which is a whiteboard emulator that acts as a really big google doc. I've only DM'ed with Roll20, as it is my favorite of the options, but the other two work well enough.
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Ludans
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Post by Ludans on Dec 27, 2014 5:36:39 GMT
i'd prefer roll20 myself, mostly because of my limited facilities @u@
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kasa
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Post by kasa on Dec 29, 2014 23:43:51 GMT
another push for roll20, I have a paid account on the site for no other reason then to support them and allow them to grow bigger =] |
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ladyofthegem
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Post by ladyofthegem on Dec 30, 2014 20:26:00 GMT
Though I have not actually payed yet, I was able to sit in and watch as my friends used roll20 and we chatted with skype at the same time vuv
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Post by Sheena on Jan 3, 2015 16:15:29 GMT
The main post has been updated to include suggestions posted here with the aim to help people looking for a resource.
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sethani
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Post by sethani on Feb 3, 2015 13:00:48 GMT
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Post by Sheena on Feb 22, 2015 5:46:25 GMT
^Holy CRAP
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